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Harry’s Cafe de Wheels

More than a pie cart, the venerable establishment known as Harry’s Cafe de Wheels is a unique piece of Sydney’s history, and the stuff of legend and myth. Originally known simply as Harry’s, one story states that it became a ‘Cafe de Wheels’ due to a council regulation that mobile food vans had to move a minimum one foot per day. With customers’ cars often crowding the entrance to Garden Island, Harry’s was a thorn in the side of the Navy for years.

Physical Description

Converted box style caravan with slightly arched roof made from a metal frame, timber body and vinyl trimmings. The caravan has a horizontal two-door serving counter (rectangular in shape) with an access door on the right end. The left end features a small compartment with padlocked doors, containing an electronic fuse box and generator. The caravan is painted white with various red, blue, green and black advertising and decoration. The paint is peeling and has been damaged in sections and it is mostly discoloured. On the roof of the caravan is a rectangular sign propped up with diagonal strips of metal with seven light bulbs across the top. There is another sign propped up to the side of this with three light bulbs (above the left end featuring the small compartment). Inside the caravan is a kitchenette area, storage shelving and air vent with vinyl flooring. There are also loose remains of signage and sheet metal.

Marks

On the main serving side of the caravan cafe is, 'HARRY'S CAFE DE-WHEELS' in red with 'WE SELL & / RECOMMEND', 'BIRDS', 'Quality / SMALLGOODS' below this. On either side of the serving counter it says, 'Harry's / Pies / & / Peas' and 'HOT / DOGS' with 'PEPSI' and 'JOIN THE / PEPSI / GENERATION' along the lower section. There is also a torn ' 'DO / THE RIGHT / THING' ' sticker facing customers stuck onto the back of a shelf inside the serving counter. The other side of the caravan is unmarked. On one end there is a 'Schweppes' sign written in white on a blue background with 'Harry's CAFE DE WHEELS / TEA - COFFEE' below this. On a protruding compartment on this same side is also, 'Harry's / Pies / & / Peas' and a ' 'DO / THE RIGHT / THING' ' sticker. The other end only features a window sticker with 'ARLEC' written back the front and a picture of a loudspeaker.

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Dimensions

Width

2500 mm

Production

Notes

The van's chassis of welded steel tube appears to be of one-off handyman manufacture. The van's shell is crudely constructed from sheet steel, which has been bolted to a welded angle iron frame. The shell has been subject to heavy use, with numerous dents and scratches, as well as welded patch repairs and open bolt holes. It has been modified by the insertion of an exhaust fan and the attachment of water outlets and electrical fittings. Demountable advertising signs were attached to either side of the serving hatch. The original timber floor has been patched with masonite and covered with vinyl.

Made

History

Notes

In 1938 Harry 'Tiger' Edwards first opened a food cart at the corner of Macleay St and Cowper Wharf Road in Woolloomooloo. When war broke out he joined the army, serving with the 2/2nd Machine Gun Battalion in the Middle East. He was wounded and discharged in November 1942 suffering from severe asthma. Edwards was said to be 'quite a character', a gambler and a man who liked to be his own boss. He drove a taxi and a fruit truck before rigging up an old army ambulance as a mobile canteen which he operated at rugby league matches and other sporting events. In 1945 he swapped the ambulance for a makeshift caravan - the one in the Museum's collection -- and parked it outside the Garden Island Naval Dockyard.

When the police told Edwards to move his van as it was disrupting traffic, a thief mysteriously stole the wheels. This was in 1945 and for years, Harry's Cafe de Wheels had no wheels at all. The Maritime Services Board and Defence officials who controlled the Dockyard negotiated a permanent spot for Harry's Cafe outside the naval base. 'Besides, in 1945, people did not like to see bureaucrats pushing around wounded veterans who were trying to make an honest quid for themselves' (Jefferson Penberthy, 'Sydney Morning Herald', 11 July 1981).

Despite harrassment by the Council, State and Commonwealth Police, Harry's nocturnal eatery remained, although it was shifted up and down Cowper Wharf Road a number of times. Gus and Dorrie Williams worked at Harry's in the 1950s. Later Jack Keith of Bondi ran the café while Edwards retained ownership. The late Alex Kuronya acquired and ran Harry's from 1975. Harry Edwards died in 1979.

The van remained outside the entrance to Garden Island until 1981, when it was forced to move due to the Navy's redevelopment of the site. A temporary spot was found on Navy land on the foreshore opposite Brougham St. In 1985, after some debate about its future, the Lord Mayor Doug Sutherland secured a new permanent site at the bottom of McElhone Steps in Cowpers Wharf Road. However to satisfy Council's health regulations the old van, propped up by packing cases on its axles, had to be replaced. Alex Kuronya kindly donated the van to the Powerhouse Museum where it was retired and preserved after 40 years of service.

In 1994 the Powerhouse Museum's Department of Conservation fitted the caravan with wheels so that it could be manoeuvred easily. It was the intention at the time of its acquisition to use 'Harry's Cafe de Wheels' as a working cafe within the grounds of the Museum, but from both a conservation and health and safety viewpoint, this proved unfeasible.